Effondrement, résistances et transformations de l’emploi textile dans les villes françaises des années 1960 aux années 2010

From the XVIII century, textile industry has taken a great part in the French manufacturing process. Nowadays, it employs no more than 100000 persons, ten times less than half a century ago. Using a harmonised data base on cities perimeters and economic activities, this study provides a systematic insight on this massive textile industry decrease, looking at functional urban areas and urban areas outside FUAs, i.e. 1304 cities, from 1960 to 2010. Results underline the scope of the decrease. The number of cities with at least 20 jobs in the textile industry has been divided by two between 1962 and 2015. Some regions have faced sharp decline. However, complementary results supplement this drastic picture. Sequential change, approached through urban trajectories between 1962 and 2015, downsizes the massive decrease which occurred between 1968 and 1983. An ascending hierarchical classification on textile employment figures for the 6 census dates shows that one in five cities registered a net or relative increase in textile job numbers between 1970 and 1990. Even more, the deviation to the mean French profile in textile employment for those 6 dates shows that quite one in five cities kept or developed a strong specialisation in textile industry. Last, the mains breakdowns within the cities textile employment trajectories (brutal loss in jobs), occurred very regularly since the 1960s, and not only between 1968 and 1983.